Find The Controversy

Depth and Complexity: Ethics… In Math!?

The Ethics prompt of depth and complexity fits so easily into the humanities… but what about ethics in math?!

Paradox: Ship of Theseus

Here’s a fun thought experiment your students are sure to get a kick out of: when something is slowly replaced over time, is it still the same thing in the end?

A Clock Math Project?

A reader wrote in, asking how to differentiate for a task like reading analog clocks. What to do with a student who has mastered this skill? What’s a good math clock project?

Encourage Curiosity With Calculators

It’s easy to fall in love with chasing the newest technology to use in the classroom. But sometimes, the perfect tool is a plain old calculator. We’ll be using this tool to develop curiosity about math.

Three Videos With Mind-Blowing Optical Illusions

Paradoxes and illusions are a great area of study to blow students’ minds. I recently discovered an amazing artist, Kokichi Sugihara, who creates and films optical illusions using just paper and balls.

Paradox: Does Majority Rule?

A quick, but challenging discussion topic for any age: “Is it always fair to make decisions based on a majority vote?”

Tickling Curiosity

Let’s look at a way to encourage and scaffold curiosity in our classes using a “Book of Unanswered Questions.” Begin by sharing intriguing objects or images and asking your own questions. Give kids a chance to find answers to their questions. Then encourage students to bring in their own intriguing conversation starters. Finally, move students towards curriculum based questions.

3 More Paradoxes, Part III

Here are even more amazing paradoxes to baffle your students: Buridan’s Bridge, the Bootstrap Paradox, and the Barber Paradox.

Conflict and Quadrilaterals

Rather than merely asking “what patterns are there in these quadrilaterals” we’ll set up an exploration of conflict and quadrilaterals.

Multiple Perspectives: Right And Wrong At The Same Time?

It’s essential to teach our students to think flexibly and consider multiple points of view. Flexible thinking leads to product innovation, diplomacy between nations, and advances in science. School, however, often encourages students to settle into a “one right answer” mindset.